Eyes In The Woods
by Emily Poe
Summary: Young Alice is a restless farm girl. When she goes into the woods one day, will she fully realize what she finds?


Once upon a time, there lived a girl who desired more than her mundane life. Her name was Alice, and she was a pretty farm girl who lived with her mother in their tiny home. She had long, yellow hair, tied up in to pigtails and emerald eyes that always had a spark to them. She loved her mother and her home, but she was often bored, with every book in their house having been read and every path in her town she had tread on. Such a boring existence did not suit her. But, there was one place she hadn't been to yet, had no idea about, and would love to look around.

The woods.

But her mother forbade her to go in. Her mother was frightened of the woods, telling Alice that if she were to go in, she would never come out again. She made Alice promise to never go into the woods, never all the days she lived. Alice had promised her, and had kept this promise too.

Until now.

Her mother had to go to a town far away one day, taking a path through the mountain. She had Alice promise to behave, to feed the hens and cow, and to not go into the woods. Alice promised, but she planned to not keep that promise.

As soon as her mother was out of sight, she ran into her home, where she pulled on her brown leather boots, took a knife that the family kept for protection, and packed some bread and cheese in a small bundle.

She took off to the woods. At the edge of the woods, she stopped, rather unsure if she should go forward or head back. Taking a deep breath, Alice dashed in.  
The woods were not all that bad, and she couldn't begin to understand why her mother had forbade her to go in. There was a path, clear in the sunlight that trickled in through the branches.

Sometime in, she came upon a fox, as red as any red she had ever seen and with beautiful dark green eyes. The fox stared at her, and she stared back. She had seen foxes before, she had had to scare them away from the chickens. Just as the fox stepped closer, there was a rustle in the bushes and out jumped a yellow rabbit with small, grass like colored eyes, clumsily hopping along. As soon as the fox saw the yellow rabbit, it scampered after it and the rabbit hopped along, away from the fox.

Alice was worried for the rabbit, but decided to continue on. As she got deeper and the sun got higher, she stopped near a stream to rest and eat. As she ate her bread and cheese and drank the water from the stream, she saw across the stream and young buck stop and drink. She looked up and stayed perfectly still as she watched the buck, as brown as chestnut drink the water. The buck looked up and stared at her, his pale green eyes seeming to examine her. Then, the buck bounded off, into some other direction. Alice didn't know what came over her, but she bounded off after it, after packing up the cheese and bread, until she could see it no more. Taking deep breaths, Alice looked around and realized she had no clue of where she was. She had gone off the path, so far off that she could no longer see it.

Alice wandered, looking for the path, until the bright day started to wane, and dusk was upon her. She sat, as the sun rays started to disappear and nibbled on the leftover bread and cheese. As Alice sat, town small, orange mice crawled from a grassy patch up close to her. Alice looked at them and then, after some though, broke off some bread and cheese, and put it towards them. Though cautious at first, the little orange mice with small, moss green eyes.

Suddenly, their ears perked and they ran. Alice stood straight up, looking around. From the shadows of the trees, emerged a large, black thing, growling and snapping at her. The rays of sunlight reflected off the bright, icy eyes of the creature before her. Alice stared in horror as a great, large wolf stalked towards her. She screamed and, throwing the rest of the bread and cheese at the wolf, she fled through the woods. The wolf snapped at her heels as she ran through the woods, and the sunlight that was left showed her way through.

Alice's lungs ached and her calves burned, but she kept running, running. Suddenly, Alice met the ground as she tumbled over a large rock in her path. She back up on the ground, staring at the hungry jaws of the great wolf, it's eyes boring into her.

Suddenly, the wolf was pushed aside. Alice looked up and saw a buck, the chestnut brown buck from the river. The buck kicked and stomped at the wolf as the wolf snapped at the buck. When it looked as though the buck would lose, from the shadows of the tress, the red fox from the path jumped onto the back of the wolf, biting down onto it as the wolf shook it's body back and forth, trying to throw off the fox as the buck got it's bearings.

Alice stood, backing up. She heard a squeak behind her and, looking back, saw the two orange mice and the yellow rabbit. The rabbit hopped a few paces away and looked back at Alice. The mice ran even further and squeaked at her in fervor. She stepped forward, understanding what the mice and rabbit wanted. The rabbit looked forward and hopped away, the mice running alongside side it, and Alice running behind them, keeping up as best she could. She had to follow rabbit and mice, follow the animals.

The sun was almost gone and Alice was scared, what if she lost sight of the animals? But she did not lose sight of the rabbit or mice, the sun still shone on them. She could no longer hear the wolf or the buck or the fox behind them, but could only hear her deep breath and the crunch of leaves and sticks under her boots.

Suddenly, the trees started breaking up, getting farther and farther apart. She could now see beyond the trees, she could see her home.

Alice ran ahead of the rabbit and mice, run out into the open and to her home. Her mother wasn't yet back but she didn't care, she was home. Then, Alice stopped, and looked back, just for a moment, as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Alice could swear, as she turned to head inside, she could see five pairs of peculiar, green eyes, so much like her own.

* * *

From the bushes in front of Alice's home, bordering the woods, there hid five boys. The eldest had blood red hair, two more, twins, had bright orange hair, the next youngest had chestnut brown hair, and the youngest bright yellow hair, very much like Alice's. All had very bright green eyes.  
They watched the house, they have always watched the house, ever since years ago, when, while in the woods, they stole from an old crone. She had captured the boys and put a spell on them, that they would be animals by day, but at night, they would be little boys again. They would live forever, confined to the woods, but they watched their sister, grow and grow.


End file.
